Nihlus need not have worried; Saren stalked off not long after the door closed behind his fellow Spectre. The man was entirely capable of questioning Williams on his own, and in the meantime Saren had work to do. As most of the Normandy's crew was still on leave he took the opportunity to walk the circuit of the ship vastly unbothered. The few humans who had remained on board stayed well out of his way.

Down in the garage only three of the crew remained: The Obstinatus Commander leaning against the far wall, the human Mako driver only visible by her boots sticking out from under the bunk of the tank, and Garrus Vakarian seated against its side and passing her tools while he ran diagnostics on his omnitool. As he stood back in the dark the human pushed out from beneath with her short hair in a ragged red mess to smile at Vakarian and something in the flutter of the young man's mandibles made Saren's eyes narrow. Fraternization was not something he concerned himself with policing but if his turian team was being tainted by the human crew...

An orange light flared through the darkness back by the weapons bench, reflecting on the face of Solana Vakarian who smiled in a way rather unlike her normal battle-ready grin. "-Yeah I know love, but the job's taking longer than we thought. I won't be able to make it to the wedding. He'll understand, the Galluses are military through and through after all and we've been friends long enough. Send him and Janus my regards. And try not to get too drunk at the reception, you know what it does to you and I won't be around to make sure you behave."

The voice on the other line was too soft to be overheard but she laughed. "Yes I've been a good girl you little shit. You just want me to say I wasn't don't you?" On the other side of the garage Garrus seemed to have picked up on the conversation and was miming gagging to the driver, who made the most appalling snorting sound when she laughed. Solana ignored them until she finished the call and then turned to glare at her brother. "Does the peanut gallery plan on speaking up or are they pretending I couldn't hear that?"

"It's just a joke Sol." were his words, but there was a derisiveness to his subvocals that was easily heard. "But seriously, you could do a lot better."

Her mandibles flared out harshly as she stood, staring incredulously back at him. "Would it kill you to lay off Lantar for once in my life? You've been ragging on him since the day I brought him home; Spirits G, you tried to talk me out of my relationship on my damned wedding day!" There was more of a tired disbelief than an anger in her tones. It seemed this was a conversation that had occurred many times before.

"Uh, Garrus, you should probably lay off-" That was the human, crinkling the lines over her eyes and giving the soldier a look like he was a particularly remarkable level of stupid for arguing this point.

"Jane I know my sister and this needs to be said." he waved off her warning and continued. "Because he's as dumb as a sack of hammers, he's too damn short, he's a dropout-"

"Oh so it's the military dick waving again is it? Well you have permission to suck mine because I don't give a shit, and when we finish this tour I'm going home and he's rocking your big sister's world for a week straight."

Saren decided he had heard enough and returned to the elevator. He would ask Solana about the status of the Obstinatus Unit at another time. After finishing his circuit of the ship he passed by the Isolation room on the way to his cabin: Alenko was gone, Wrex remained leaning against the wall casually and greeted him with a faint nod of his armored head. "Still in there. Lot of talking." the krogan said without waiting to be asked why Saren had lingered instead of just disappearing into his room.

He chose not to reply and took to his cabin to review the scans that had run on Williams' armor while he and Nihlus had been otherwise occupied. Most confirmed his previous findings from before but as for the ones he had been unable to determine... Interesting.

A knock at his door activated the camera on his console. Nihlus was standing outside the cabin and a quick gesture of his omnitool unlocked it. The younger Spectre strode in, the perfect picture of professionalism. "Report." Saren said, without raising his gaze from the screens.

Nihlus waited until the door had closed and re-locked to drop the formal parade rest and stand more comfortably. "She's not with him, not anymore. I'm an excellent judge of character and outside that one fuckup I've never been wrong. You've asked more than once for my help getting people you weren't allowed to torture to talk so you know I'm good at this."

"What do you recommend, Nihlus."

"Let her out and let her serve on board. Ashley's a damn good soldier and she wants Shepard dead as much as I do."

Silence settled over the room for some time after that before he dismissed the screens and looked up. Brilliant green eyes looked back, concealing nothing. He was asking him to trust him. But Nihlus knew who he asked, he knew his mentor's nature. "The mission may rest on this."

Nihlus' mandibles flared just slightly in a humorless smile. "Which is why I'd recommend hacking her tool with the software you used to spy on Parvan Jah just in case my radar really has fucked itself. You'll know about anything suspicious before she does and then we'll have Shepard's ass in a vice."

"That is acceptable. I trust you know her history and the likelihood of her causing trouble with parts of my crew?"

"I didn't exactly have the chance to look it up between meeting her and realizing she was on the ship but if you're referring to her grandfather yes, she told me about that." As he spoke Nihlus had come across the room to the point where he was at his shoulder, leaving him standing close and Saren very aware of his proximity. The face and the voice above him both gained some of their old humor back when he continued. "She also said she doesn't have a problem with turians, just assholes. Called you one and told me I was free to pass that along."

Saren's sole choice of comment on that was a snort before he turned off to recall the screens of data he had been reviewing. Nihlus and his rich scent remained distractingly close. "Artifacts?" came the question from beside him.

"An immense concentration of them judging from the amount of detritus that found its way into the armor's crevasses. It ranges from chemical compositions preferred in prothean pottery to threads of parchment the system believes came from the inusannon, to Spirits know what save that it is older, much older. It seems that part of Williams story were not entirely fabricated."

"Damn."

"Indeed." Saren settled a hand under his face, narrowing his eyes at the screen in concentration. "It does not make sense. But little of this mission has so far. This 'Sovereign', the beacon, the geth, Shepard's timing, the killings... There is so much I haven't been able to review it all let alone understand it."

"We'll figure it out. You're smart as hell and we only work better together." His voice was closer now, almost against where his ear canal was located behind his horn. Saren's browplates rose as he turned his head to look back at him...

...Which was exactly when Nihlus chose to slip past his guard, cram himself between his body and the desk to straddle his lap, and thrusted his tongue into his mouth with a suddenness that took his breath away. It was a reckless gesture; turians were not made for kissing let alone this sort, a single startled bite from him could have cut straight through that fool tongue but Nihlus knew just the right buttons to make him gasp and give himself the room to push past his mouthplates to taste him. It was nearly enough to make him give in but he managed to pull his head back without injuring either of them. "Nihlus!" he snarled with his primary tone, though damn it something else entirely was threatening at the edges of his subvocals.

He just smiled knowingly with half lidded eyes. "Please Saren, I know you. You soundproofed this place so you could hear out but no one could hear in unless you wanted them to as soon as you took command, same you did with the Virial." Damn him he looked pleased with himself as he leaned back, utterly aware of the way the curving lines of his armor highlighted his waist. "I agreed to follow your rule so I won't push you for this, even when we're so rarely on the same ship together. But you can invite me up whenever you like. Call this a reminder that if you change your mind..."

Another long kiss followed, slower than the first, ending with their foreheads settled together and Nihlus' warm breath on his face. "...that's how much I want you."

True to his word Nihlus left after that without further advances. It was just markedly harder for Saren to concentrate on reports afterwards, to the point where he gave up on them entirely and retreated to his bed to work out the sudden tension in a less constructive way.

"Hello you have reached the desk of Matriarch Benezia on Thessia, how can I help you?"

"This is Saren Arterius, I need to speak to the Matriarch. My number is on her Clear list." The clarification was unnecessary; Silene had been Benezia's secretary for the last two centuries and knew well who he was by now. However she appreciated the formality from him and he had always been careful to use it.

"I'm sorry Spectre, the Matriarch is not available at this time, she is currently on a meditative retreat and won't be back in contact for another two months. Can I take a message for you?"

Unfortunate. His mandibles gave a small flick and pulled in closer to his face. "Can you tell me where she is?"

"She's on Noveria Spectre, but she's not to be-"

Saren brought up another line on his terminal to inform Navigation that they were setting course for Port Hanshan immediately. That done he turned his attention back to the secretary. "If you have a way to contact Benezia I need you to tell her that the matter I must discuss with her is of her daughter's kidnapping."

Silene went ashen at his words. After a few moments of shock her fingers started to fly across the holokeys in a flurry. "I'll- I'll let her know Spectre, thank you. Is there anything else I should pass ahead?"

"Shepard is responsible, and we believe Liara is still alive. I will be on Noveria shortly to pass the rest on to her myself."

The pale blue face that looked back at him through the vid link was shaken but still held strong. "..Thank you Saren. You know how much this means to us."

"I will do what I can. I make no promises."

"I know." She gave a very small smile, and the call ended shortly after that. It left the cabin dim around him as he stared ahead with templed hands under his chin, mandibles tightened hard against his face. A gesture brought up the footage captured by Tarquin's drone that showed the young asari being led off by Shepard in a circle of geth, terrified out of her mind. Saren cursed himself internally for not realizing sooner that this had been Benezia's daughter's dig site. Not that he would have changed his course of action on the ground, but he could have told her sooner: Liara was her only living child, utterly naive but very intelligent. She should have a promising future in front of her.

Saren shook his head with a low sigh and rose from his desk. If it was possible to save the girl he would for her mother's sake, Spirits knew he was a man of very few friends. But if it was a choice between taking down Shepard and securing Liara?

The mission came first, and there was much work yet to do.

Noveria wasn't much for shore leave. Saren was allowed free access as a Spectre and Nihlus would have been allowed the same had he not chosen to stay on-board to get a better handle of the Normandy under her new Commander. Understand the dynamics and the mood of the crew, more or less. As for how that was going, well...

Tense as fuck was a good place to start. The easy camaraderie that had existed under David Anderson was gone, replaced by that particular brand of distrust and paranoia that followed his mentor around as naturally as his shadow. From what he'd gleaned the worst of it had only really started the day before he'd come on board... which was what found Nihlus in the cockpit listening to the pilot explain the story of the Navigation Officer's departure from the Normandy just after she had docked at the Citadel.

It wasn't that he needed to know what had happened- he'd already gotten it from several other witnesses- but he needed to know where Jeff Moreau stood. The answer? Not good. It couldn't be much clearer how much he loathed Saren. He'd been finding any way to dog him that he could, having either not grasped that the man was stubborn as fuck or simply not caring.

When the story of Charles Pressly's furious and very public resignation from Saren's command finished Joker stared ahead at his console, stiff lines drawn in his face. Nihlus let it rest for a few breaths before speaking up again. "I take it you don't like his replacement then?"

"What, Rana? She seems to know what she's doing and she's hotter that Pressly was to boot. I like her just fine but that doesn't mean I trust her. I don't trust anyone our fearless leader brings on board my baby."

Nihlus' mandibles quirked slightly at that in a dry humor that carried into his voice. "So where does that leave me?"

"Technically the Council sicced you on us, but I don't know if that makes it better or worse. No offence."

"None taken. So if you don't trust me why are you talking to me?"

The human shrugged and flicked his fingers through a few idling processes running diagnostics on the Normandy's performance while they were docked. "Don't think I have much of a choice, we're stuck on the same ship after all."

"I appreciate the honesty Mr. Moreau. It's not often easy to find."

He pulled a face at that, waving him off. "Please, just... stick to Joker. 'Mr. Moreau' is what your big nasty friend calls me, I prefer to hear it as little as possible so I know when to watch out for a bullet in the head."

Actually he wouldn't warn you first, he'd just take the shot. But explaining that aloud wasn't constructive to building bridges so he kept it to himself. "Saren's methods are extreme but he gets the job done better than anyone else. And if nothing else the sooner this is over the sooner we're all off your ship."

Joker snorted "I'll be sure to save the tequila and party hats until then." and brought up a series of maintenance screens that effectively cut Nihlus out of his space and ended the conversation. Ah well, not bad for a first try. The Spectre extracted himself gracefully and headed for the elevator and another person of interest.

He, ah, tended to avoid the garage for a few specific reasons. Three to be precise, and since the whole of the Obstinatus unit was onboard all three of them watched him with barely contained lust as he exited the elevator. Nihlus did his best to ignore both them and Wrex's grin (cheeky bastard) as he made his way back to Williams at the weapons bench. "Good morning Corporal. I take it you've been settling in well?"

"As well as I can with the Spectre Club spying on me." Ashley put down the Avenger she'd been taking apart and turned to him. It wasn't wrong of her to be suspicious. Rana Thanoptis may have been trained as a navigator but Nihlus had known her first as a psychologist and neurospecialist in Saren's employ, and the man never did anything accidentally. Frankly Nihlus was probably the only person not spying on her from Saren's crew. He offered her a small flick of his mandibles.

"You'll prove yourself in time."

"Me or humanity?"

"I see my earlier conversation with Shepard must have been overheard."

"Yeah, it was." There was a hard set to her face as she crossed her arms and eyed him up. It was an entirely different sort of look than the hungry inviting glances the two women and the one man kept shooting him from across the room. Frankly they weren't bad looking, especially the older woman, but he wasn't interested in anyone but Saren. Not that he could exactly tell them that to get them off his back... Debating politics was deeply preferable.

"You grew up on a colony, correct?"

"On Sirona. I don't see what it has to do with the conversation."

"I grew up on a little colony out in the Borena cluster myself. We both know it's a hard life that's all a matter of proving yourself. The military is the same way, as are galactic relations. My people went through it over a millennia ago and your people are going through it now. It all takes time."

"Humanity has been a part of the galactic community for decades and we more than do our part, all we want is representation."

"It took the turians a century of war and many more decades of waiting afterwards to do the same. Other races have waited longer, humanity needs time to prove itself. It's why I was willing to put forward a human Spectre candidate. Of course we all know how that ended."

"I'm gonna kill that bastard for what he did to me." Hell of a snarl on the woman.

Nihlus gave a humorless chuckle. "You'll have to get in line for that."

She looked back up at him at that, olive face sincere. "For what it's worth, I hope you get him if I don't. We've actually got reasons for it." It was clear that her distaste for her new Commander was strong, and she had no way of knowing Saren's reasons were just as legitimate as their own. Nihlus had no intention of informing her either. Yes he wanted to build bridges with the crew, but he would not harm his relationship with Saren to do it. He had his priorities after all.

They spoke civilly on the issue for a time longer before he excused himself. No progress yet. There was still time to win her over though, so he didn't worry. In the meantime he had contacts to bother.

Benezia's help was proving invaluable. Fearing for her daughter's safety she had held nothing back; the webs of information she had stretched back centuries and he had been granted full access to all of them. The possibility of finding the girl alive and intact was still small, but it would not be for lack of attempt on the part of her mother.

Of particular interest was information the matriarch had received shortly before cutting off contact for her retreat: an acolyte had sent in a report detailing a creature that predated the protheans and held extensive knowledge of them. With Shepard's ship possessing parameters that weren't possible with current technology, the fixation on artifacts like the beacon, the attacks on dig sites, Liara's kidnapping... his conclusions had drawn themselves to the fact that the forces involved in this were prothean. How or why he knew not, but it all pointed towards them. Knowledge was what he needed, and Feros promised a chance of answers.

Distractions were kept to a minimum as Saren analyzed Shiala's report. In the right hands the discovery of a species that seemed to exist outside of all known parameters for life would have been fascinating, but he had never been a man of science; he was a soldier, a Spectre. Thirty years ago there may have been more wonder in him. Too much had happened since then.

Nihlus accompanied him planetside. The Obstinatus unit and Urdnot Wrex were left to secure the landing site against the colonists, suspicious to the last of strangers asking to see their Lord. Saren knew from the report that they had been brainwashed. Every person who left the ship was helmeted, the time span it took for the spores to enslave someone was unknown and he would not risk his crew. Even so he did not wish to linger on this planet longer than necessary and he was ready to make the call to just start killing the stubborn humans to speed the process along when Shiala finally arrived and was able to calm them. Only then were the Spectres allowed to enter the complex hidden under Zhu's Hope that lead to the Thorian's lair.

The creature had been waiting for them. Massive and bloated it hung in the ruins, faceless and voiceless save a low guttural sound that resonated in the stone beneath their feet. It drew from its depths what had once been a human being that was now tinged a dark green with a marked emptiness to its eyes. "The Old Growth knows that the flesh have come to speak. It questions what flesh have to say that is worth its attention when you will not even show proper awe." the thrall spoke with words not its own.

Saren looked towards the creature beyond the human, indifferent to its claims of greatness and its slave both. "We have come to deal for information on the protheans."

"Flesh has little that the Old Growth values. Why would it make deals with you?"

"Because your reach is limited on this planet and there are things you want that you have not been able to obtain. I believe that I am in possession of one of them now."

The creature seemed to contemplate that for a moment, its puppet going limp as it did so. When those dead eyes raised and opened again their gaze was locked firmly on Shiala. "It desires the small one."

"Acceptable." He answered without missing a beat. Shiala snapped around to gape at him in shock, her small square teeth visible when her jaw dropped. Beside him Nihlus was more subtle in his reactions but Saren could feel those familiar eyes burning into him despite the helmet. "I want to know what the protheans were planning when they disappeared and how the beacons tie into it. What measures they may have left behind that would still function all this time past. Particularly ships."

There was real fear on the commando's face. He had read her report several times, he knew her feelings of awe and dread for this creature, the lengths she had gone to shielding herself from its influence. She fought for composure admirably, but all the same her voice quavered when she spoke. "Spectre, you can't-"

"Benezia has already approved of all possible recourse while her daughter's life hangs in the balance. Her gratitude for your sacrifice will be eternal."

Shiala stared from him to the Thorian, pale with fear, but did not run. Finally she lowered her head in submission and wrapped lightly armored arms around herself. "...If my Matriarch has need of me... I have followed her loyally for two hundred years, I can make no other choice. Goddess..."

It was not that he lacked sympathy, it was simply what needed to be done. But when the thrall began to move towards the woman to collect her he drew her back and gave Nihlus the order to guard her. Restraint was not necessary as she did not fight, and the thrall stopped once she was pulled away. The long cold silence from Nihlus continued, but he did as asked and said nothing.

Once again Saren spoke up, tone utterly level and calm. "She will be turned over only after I have been told what I want to know. What do you know of the beacons left behind by the protheans, what was their purpose?"

"There was one here, far back in the long cycle. It is gone now but the Old Growth retains it. Come forward and it will give you what you seek, though it will not help you. The Old Growth has nothing to fear for it is eternal. But the darkness is coming, and those that scurry through the worlds above will not survive."

Armored footfalls echoed through the chamber as he approached the creature with his head held high. His boldness was not in ignorance of what he faced. Saren knew the dangers of this being as well as anyone alive and had taken all appropriate precautions. If those were not sufficient Nihlus had been left with explicit instructions at what point to extract him by any means necessary. If nothing else his faith in his fellow Spectre was complete; whatever happened with the Thorian he would leave this place. So he did not fear as he removed his helmet and a foul smelling tendril rose and touched his face.

A hundred thousand voices began screaming at once. Images, sounds, too much, too fast, it was prying his skull open from the force-

The world went black and he knew no more.